₦airaland Forum

Purist: Manchester United threads have always had the highest number of pages in this section before Elampiro found his way here.

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Lol, Bros are you sure?

Dem give me 'award' and you dey deny me my prize.

It looks like elampiro MUST never been given credit for anything. Lol

Dadehmola: Elampiro, this issue has been discussed on numerous occassions. If Rooney, Rvp and mata are to be regular starters in LVG's preferred 3-5-2 formation, where will the 45m rated Argentinian fit in?

Di Maria, Rooney and RVP can all play in the 3-5-2. Rooney or Di Maria can play in the wing. Or we rotate them on 3-5-2 while we start them all in other formation. 28 to 32 league appearances is okay for them. Injury will come in too.

Why did we not sign Di Maria immediately after the world cup or as soon as Madrid indicated interest in Rodriquez or when PSG opted out. We will have to cough out at least £60m now.

I don't look at goals stat to judge players. Everyone knew Di Maria was a world class, when a big club get an opportunity of signing a world class player in a position that is vacant, it seizes such an opportunity. No delay.

Whether or not our 3-5-2 works with Val, Shaw and Young. We will still need a player like Di Maria to give us opins and something extra and special. If Januzaj or Lingaard can play wing back, why can't Di Maria? He seats deep and uses his speed to zig zag his way forward, then Mata, Rooney and RVP come brilliantly alive.

elampiro: Neville:
Van Gaal will have looked at Rooney and thought: this is a player who is not too proud to listen to criticism and not too shy to dish it out. That is captaincy material, as Van Gaal outlined in his press conference ahead of the Swansea match. The next stage for Rooney is to think like a captain.

When I think back to his early days at United I remember his personality and cheekiness. Rooney was the only player who would dare pull up a seat at the coaches’ table in the canteen and ask Sir Alex Ferguson: “Am I playing tomorrow, boss?” The manager would cuff him about the head and say: “That’s nothing to do with you.”

Other times, Rooney would sit next to Sir Alex on the bus and ask: “Who am I playing up front with?” He would just assume he was in the team.

When I was part of a group of senior players, with Vidic, Rio, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, Rooney and Patrice Evra were the most vocal. Rooney would face everything head on. I can think of many occasions when he would be screaming at the defence to move up or the midfield to close down. As captain, now, the other players will look at him differently. His team-mates will expect him to offer help and advice. He will be expected to be the voice of the team more often with the media.

This guy has been a capain since, and even a demi-coach on the field of play.

Play Rooney as top 9 (lone striker) all season. Bring in someone like him to join in the build up. Let's see if Rooney won't score 30+ league goals.




*** Ignorant analysts said his salary is too much. PSG said again 'give us Rooney, we need him seriously and we can pay'.

Forces of demand and supply pushed his salary to that level. Next life pray for such a Divine favour upon your life. Were people see everything good in you and appreciate your value.

Stan Collymore: Alex Ferguson should have made Wayne Rooney Man United captain a LONG time ago

17 August 2014 10:49 AM

By Stan Collymore

Giving Rooney the armband will bring out the best in the England striker at Old Trafford, reckons Stan Collymore

Captain fantastic? Rooney netted on his debut as full-time United captain

Louis van Gaal’s decision to hand Wayne Rooney the ­captaincy at Manchester United is an ­absolute stroke of genius from the Dutchman, writes Stan Collymore in the Sunday People.

And I can’t help but wonder if Sir Alex Ferguson read of the appointment last week and thought, ‘Do you know what, that’s actually a very clever move and I wish I had done that myself’.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/stan-collymore-alex-ferguson-should-4063096

Gary Neville: Wayne Rooney is a born leader and will restore Manchester United to Premier League top four

Wayne Rooney takes on increased responsibility as Manchester United captain this season

Picture: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Gary Neville

11:00PM BST 15 Aug 2014

New columnist Gary Neville says Manchester United's captain will form formidable partnership with Louis van Gaal in first article written exclusively for Telegraph Sport

The new manager-captain partnership of Louis van Gaal and Wayne Rooney is a powerful one that can help lift Manchester United back into the Champions League places as their Premier League campaign kicks off against Swansea City at Old Trafford.

Defying conventional logic comes easily to Van Gaal, who is not scared to shock. When he took over at United plenty predicted world war three between him and Rooney. At that point Robin van Persie seemed nailed on to be captain; but Van Gaal turned that expectation on its head, in the face of intense media speculation about how his relationship with Rooney would work.

What Van Gaal will have seen while watching him train every day is that he has passed the armband to the most intense player at that football club, with a ferocious attitude and tough mentality. He knows Rooney will fight to the last minute of every game and deliver goals, season in, season out.

Armed with this knowledge from friendlies and training sessions, Van Gaal has defused what many thought would be an explosive situation. Pictures show him hugging Rooney on the training pitch. I have no idea whether he hugs every player but there is no doubt he has made a conscious decision to bring Rooney on board: to place him at the heart of the new order.

These Manchester United players are on watch. The depressing events of last season are not yet forgotten. Only if they respond through the quality of their performances will memories of 2013-2014 be laid to rest. And all parties know that no team ride roughshod over Louis van Gaal. Rooney is now in a new phase of his career with the chance to become the leader. There has been a sharp decline in leadership in football but Rooney has all the attributes.

By ‘leaders’ I mean people who are prepared not only to hold themselves accountable but hold their team-mates accountable too. Rooney is one of a dying breed of footballers who is willing to call his team-mates out. He can take criticism but also hand it out. His approach is the traditional one of not taking criticism personally – and expecting team-mates not to take it personally either.

Van Gaal will have looked at Rooney and thought: this is a player who is not too proud to listen to criticism and not too shy to dish it out. That is captaincy material, as Van Gaal outlined in his press conference ahead of the Swansea match. The next stage for Rooney is to think like a captain.

When I think back to his early days at United I remember his personality and cheekiness. Rooney was the only player who would dare pull up a seat at the coaches’ table in the canteen and ask Sir Alex Ferguson: “Am I playing tomorrow, boss?” The manager would cuff him about the head and say: “That’s nothing to do with you.”

Other times, Rooney would sit next to Sir Alex on the bus and ask: “Who am I playing up front with?” He would just assume he was in the team.

When I was part of a group of senior players, with Vidic, Rio, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, Rooney and Patrice Evra were the most vocal. Rooney would face everything head on. I can think of many occasions when he would be screaming at the defence to move up or the midfield to close down. As captain, now, the other players will look at him differently. His team-mates will expect him to offer help and advice. He will be expected to be the voice of the team more often with the media.

As Manchester United captain with a huge profile, in the peak years of his career, Rooney has one simple task: to lift the Premier League trophy. Anything else is a failure for a Manchester United captain.

There is much to excite him in this arrangement. He gets to start afresh with added responsibility: the biggest challenge of his club career. The media spotlight is hardly alien to him but he will feel it burn more than ever. Van Gaal has clearly decided that Rooney will respond well to being entrusted with leader status.

Through manager and captain, a strong sense of purpose should shape United’s work. Rooney has the qualities to lead by example on the pitch and through his no-holds-barred approach. He will even call his coaches out. Wayne Rooney will not hold back. He is one of the few footballers I watch now who could have survived 20 years ago, in what was a more brutal environment, where every decision in training was challenged, where he would have wired into his goalkeeper if he made a mistake, where being vocal was a virtue rather than the mark of a troublemaker. Ten minutes after calling a team-mate out, he would join them on a sofa, returning to friendship mode. He pays no attention to age, seniority or reputation.

Now, he has to polish himself and make sure everything he says as captain of Man United is for the betterment of the team. He will be good at that, because in football players have become a bit scared, a bit too sensitive, to speak to one another in forthright terms. Wayne Rooney could reintroduce the highest levels of accountability. We saw it with previous captains such as Steve Bruce, Roy Keane, Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona. With those men, nothing was allowed to pass unchallenged.



Rooney will promote conversation when things are not right. It is a real challenge for coaches in modern sport to get players to take ownership of their performances, and instil that culture. Player-to-player conversations can have an even greater influence than coach-to-player discussions.

Locally, in United circles, anticipation is high. There is a fascination around Van Gaal, who has time, with a relatively gentle start to the fixture list, to ready himself for a tough spell in October and November when his team face Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal.

United are coming out of a dismal season – the worst for 25 years. I did not enjoy 2013-14 from a football point of view or in the way it ended for David Moyes. There is, though, a surge of hope, even if recruiting players is becoming so much harder.

The dark arts are multiplying. Gone are the days when clubs are content to speak to one another chairman to chairman. Nowadays there is a maze and myriad of webs to contend with. The days of Manchester United being able to walk a player round Old Trafford and show him the club blazer are finished. Before you can even get to the player you will have to deal with the agent, the lawyer, the brother, the uncle.

United are still in the storm phase after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement and the departure of David Moyes. The club are still settling down. While targets are pursued, Tyler Blackett and Michael Keane have emerged as promising young defenders, and the confidence of other players such as Fletcher, Cleverley, Young, Jones and Smalling is on the up.

I said last season that part of the task was to draw the best from players already at United. They had all been Premier League champions only months earlier. When I watched United against Liverpool or Valencia in pre-season I thought ahead to that run of games against Chelsea, City and Arsenal in October and thought: that is when Louis van Gaal will know how strong his squad really is.

Running through the sections of the team, it stares all of us in the face that no club could lose Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra at once and not expect to have to buy at least one proven defender to bolster the group. The idea of Jones, Smalling and Evans being given their head in a back three is appealing. A promotion for those three lads, with Van Gaal investing his faith in them, is a move I wholly agree with. The manager is saying: “You are my men.”

But Evans, Jones and Smalling have all had injuries over the past two or three seasons. To that base I would expect United to add one or two established defenders. Trips to City, Arsenal or Chelsea are not generally undertaken with recent academy graduates at the heart of the defence. So I imagine Van Gaal will want to add to his pool of centre-backs.

The pre-season form was strong and the players have adapted to his tactics. They are hungry to learn and prove themselves. That’s a good cocktail. Defensively, though, they need a couple of rocks. Mats Hummels appears not to be leaving Germany and Thomas Vermaelen has moved to Barcelona. So the heat is on to find a new defender with authority and experience to complete the set.

Van Gaal has a track record of working with the players he already has. He backs himself to coach good players to the level he demands. Promoting younger ones is part of his methodology. In central midfield, as things stand, United are going to struggle to match the strength at the core of Chelsea or Manchester City. Everyone can see that. Herrera is a good footballer who will now face the task of having to face Liverpool or City in a big Premier League fixture and he will need some help in that department.

The areas where reinforcements are needed are defence, central midfield and wide. I would like to see a new winger brought in to provide a tactical alternative, as Valencia and Young look likely to be used in a wing-back role.

In my opinion Adnan Januzaj is going to be a world star. When I turn my thoughts to the forward areas Rooney and Van Persie are the names on everyone’s tongue. United need those two to perform at their natural level. With Januzaj, I am convinced United have a youngster who will become one of the best in the world over the next five years.

A bold statement, I know. And some bold statements return to haunt you. Yet when I watch him play I see someone with temperament, ability, determination. Those eyes express fierce intent. Their message is: no one will stop me. Looking at Van Gaal’s history, you notice that he always promotes a technical player. David Moyes introduced Januzaj – gave him his head – and I would be amazed if he failed to thrive this season even more than last, when he tired towards the end of the campaign.

This is a big season for Januzaj. At this stage of his physical development you would not expect him to deliver 20 goals a season. But in two or three years I think he will, because he has the attributes of a world-class player.

For Van Gaal this first season is about instilling principles. To a large degree he may be happy to start with the squad he already has, rather than deal with an influx while also getting to know the current team. A big shopping trip would make a difficult situation even harder. But I do believe Manchester United will deliver in the next two weeks and bring two players in, which will protect the club against the criticism that would follow a run of underwhelming results.

Van Gaal has the look of a man who sees football in its purest form. I suspect he enjoys the higher level of control he can exert over younger players, because they are more receptive, or easier to shape, when he is laying out his plans. He was a teacher before he was a football coach and has a sharp sense of how young people think and how they absorb information. You could see that in pre-season in the way Smalling, Jones and Blackett attuned themselves to the manager’s thinking.

In two or three years, the judgment will be made on the basis of whether Van Gaal and Rooney are lifting the Premier League trophy above their heads. This new manager-captain partnership will hunt that target together, with similar intensity. They lead United into action against Swansea today and I expect them to cut down many teams along the way. Rooney’s time has come.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/11037910/Gary-Neville-Wayne-Rooney-is-a-born-leader-and-will-restore-Manchester-United-to-Premier-League-top-four.html

All these RVP supporters from Arsenal days won't allow us to hear word with their articles. What has RVP done that Rooney has done again and again? Imagine, RVP should come and teach Rooney how to score. Na wao. Rooney has scored 27 league goals from a withdrawn position. RVP scores his goals as a lone striker-everybody working for him. Why did RVP not win trophies for Arsenal?

Man United tied on points with City the previous season before RVP arrived. This was done despite Scholes missing half of the season, Cleverley and Anderson injured, Carrick played CB while Rooney in the CM in a couple of matches. Make shift here and there. SAF sitting Rooney out against Blackburn.

On the back of that performance, even Ba or Lukaku could have been a good addition to help us cross the finish line the next season early enough. With Scholes, Cleverley and Anderson all available, we were stronger in the middle.

If we had someone like Rooney providing goals, assist and quality build up play as he does for us, Man United would have cross the finish line early enough in 2009/10.

Our Falconets are early goal specialist. Last time it was 12sec. Today they scored within 40 second using same method from kick off.

Dadehmola: On his day, the Japanese is the master of the craft.

Elampiro, you really need to start accepting rooney's shortcomings - the obvious ones in particular.

On a good day? Where has there ever been a good day for Kagawa?

Short pass is not Rooney's problem. He's more adventurous with all his passes, and the error rate will be higher as a result.

Rooney short passes are bad, his first touch poor. Yet a world class coach made him a captain.

Rooney is a zillion mile ahead of RVP in 1-2 play. No one says that.

Dadehmola: Don't tell me you haven't noticed Rooney can't play intricate one-two passes around the opponent's box.

Don't tell me your love for Rooney has blinded you this badly??

So who can? RVP or Chicha or Kagawa?

Man United is not playing well enough to create chances and it affects everyone.

afrodoc: [/b]

It is statements like the first highlighted that makes it seem like the whole world is against you.Bought into what fallacy? Since you know it is my opinion why are you saying i bought into a fallacy?

So everybody who does not agree with you has been brainwashed? So you are the only person God has given the gift of original thought? It just shows your level of enlightenment(or lack of it).

Your opinion. How did he do it with Januzaj last season. Welbeck. In those goals.

How did he do it with Fletcher and co in the preseason?

afrodoc: You need to take this argument up with your partner in crime Elamps baba

I beg don't mind him. If we are to go by that logic, Ronaldo was the worst player in te world cup. He made the highest attempts at goal. Not to mention he missed the highest number of CCC in the world cup in just three games.

Stats are only pulled out when they don't favour Rooney. By December, no body will hear about this particular stat again. Another one will be searched out.

Afrodoc what makes Rooney short passes poor? You have also bought into that fallacy? Rooney gets lots of assists from short passes. His short passes makes it possible for Valencia and Welbeck to come one vs one with the goalkeeper many times. When we had a good run last season during Christmas, his short passes bailed us out when he played the number 10 but decided to drop very deep. We may have one or few off matches. RVP, Mata, Kagawa, Chicha have similar problems. But Rooney is more adventurous with his passes, whether short or long.



Anyway your opinion.

afrodoc: Bros i think you need to calm down.
Practically everybody here has disagreed with Coogar at one point or the other. There is only one regular here who agrees with everything Coogar says, so you are very mistaken in your view that people just blindly follow opinions here.
The only difference is you appear to take the football debates too personal maybe because you are the only one here who equals Coogar in NL stamina and determination to win an argument.

Dadehmola,Ruudie,Chamotex,Montelik,MrTA,Nihilist,Dayokanu,Ibime e.t.c have had several arguments with Coogar over the years and some of them bloody.........THERE IS NO ILLUMINATI here , it is a figment of your imagination

They may disagree with Coogar on a number of issues, but when post match analysis starts, they line up behind Coogar against Rooney. I am not referring to everybody. There are constant set of people doing this.

Did you remember when Rooney gave a 5 star performance against Leverkusen? What happened? It looks to me now, they are RVP loyalists too. Rooney scapegoat. RVP sacred cow.

They are the ayagayagayagayos. They know themselves. I know about four people who immediately enter into their elements when there is a single (chekere) reason to criticize Rooney. When Rooney scored two against West Ham, one from 57 yards, they still look for a way to flaw him.

So what's the thread about? Sentiments?

Dhelake: Rooney presently earns more than Ronaldo and Messi, No performance is too much to be expected from him

There's a difference between a constructive criticism and a malicious one.

However, Rooney doesn't earn higher than those guys. Even when Rooney and RVP were at £250k last season, the blames went to Rooney, wholly. Every goal RVP scored was praised and embellished with best grammar from Oxford dictionary, irrespective of whether we won or lost or even whether he played well. When Rooney scored, it has to be labeled a fluke.

You will soon see such comments on this thread once RVP resumes 'goal Man United- RVP shows Rooney how it's done'. Similar comments will follow from these same set of people here. At times their malicious comments would forget one is a top 9 while the other is a hole player in a 4-2-3-1 set up.



Too bad!

Dhelake: I honestly agree with codedguy1, elampiro sees everything like "Me against the rest". I might be wrong though

I guess you weren't here at this time last season. There's a history. I thought that had been put behind, but......

codedguy1: Its now obvious you are the retarded guinean fruitbat that has caused the latest scourge ravaging west Africa.

Bloody twunt!

You were so gullible and brainless that you foolishly washed away whatever little sense left in your brain with salt and water. You aren't making sense again. When did elampiro visit Guinea?

codedguy1: Listen to yuorself for a min or two. You would realize that you are a consumate pleb!

You do a lot of diservice to those who share your opinion on issues as non entities because there are others that support someone else.

You must realise that pple will have diff of opinions and be biased with them. If you can't handle that I suggest you find the nearest flight and head back to guinea where you trully belong.

What do u want from this thread, that everyone should follow your opinion and everythin would be sweet and dandy cos we are all on the same page?

If someone continues to insist that Rooney is shyte, with his own fact, why can't you continue to state ur own opinion with your facts or take your own advise and ignore it.

Stop being a sissy!!

Did I tell you I need loyalists? I don't brainwash or manipulate people.

codedguy1: ^^^

My friend stop talking as if your brain has been quarantined from suspicion of Ebola.

You are a grade one slowpoke. After you foolishly opened your coconut head and washed your brain with salt and water with your belief you will become immune to ebola, nothing is left of your sense.

codedguy1: ^^^

You keep equating coogars opion on Rooney as everybody's opinion. Have peeps here not expressed their opinon about Rooney that supports you and there are others who also support coogars opinion about Rooney.

Coogar praises Young to high heaven on this thread and there are many including myslf who think Young is a fraud! And have expressed it vehemently here.

So stop talking nonsense because a few pple agree with coogar on Rooney.

The diff btw you and coogar is he will defend his position no matter what is said about his opinion but you on the other hand pple just wanna gang up against when there are pple who also hold your view on some issues. No when coogar says something, against your opinion, to you- its the opinion on the thread and you start whinning.

Stop telling us you are tired of this place everytime, please do something about it!

How would it look like after every match I come here to blame RVP or Young, and then I have at least four disciples who blindly follow me week in week out for 18 months non stop? Then again I use it to interrupt every discussion. If I mentioned names, you would then see that there are constant disciples who really have no opinion of theirs.

I have never blamed any one player so badly after a match. 'Cos I know no one player can completely win or ruin a match. Bale and Modric wouldn't help Tottenham to win the EPL in a thousand years. Messi or CR7 won't won't even achieve that.

Here it's same thing every day.

codedguy1: When you post things like this, you just expose how immature you are!

Air you view and let others do their's and stop making sweeping statements like you are victim of circumstances.

You are the one who is immature. How did my post affect you? Can't you just ignore? Can't you see you guys derail post match analysis with your biased condemnation of Rooney? What is the essence of the thread if post match analysis aren't allowed to flow but stalled with senseless Rooney blame? Scapegoat of certain players at the expense of real culprits. Jones who rescued us from humiliation yesterday was again scapegoat, while Ashley Young was praised.

You guys should carry on. Run a million page on Wayne Rooney. Nobody in Old Trafford cares about these biased views.


Keep it up, keep it up.

chrisley024: Cos most comments are against Rooney? Seriously don't know why you take the thing more personal than Rooney. If you wanted to leave the thread I think this is the best time cos u should expect more of it now he's the captain. Coogar just got more to criticise him with.

Mine is that I'm fed up with it.

I wish Coogar goodluck. All his sentiments against Rooney where has it landed. Nil. Total waste of time and talent. Rooney will be a spare tire in 2013. What happened?
Rooney should be benched in the world cup. What happened.
Rooney will be sold 'cos we now have a non English coach. What happened.
Same Rooney is being promoted by his three lions mates to be given captain. Same with Ex internationals and English journalists.

Is it not obvious some people don't know what they are saying here? Anyway they can carry on. Every argument must end with Rooney. Every mistake he makes on the pitch is immediately recorded here in live match.

It's not enjoyable reading comments here because they are not objective. This is not a Man United thread.

Meanwhile, Moyes has started talking..... It looks like the man was right sef when he said the team needed overhaul and even SAF couldn't have won anything again with the average players we have.

We are now like jobless people possessed with a demon to waste God's given precious time.

chrisley024: Don't know why we keep spamming the thread with same rants anytime we lose a game?

Exactly. I am tired of the season already. I can see what the thread is going to look like. I am beginning to regret ever discovering this thread.

RVP has scored 14 league penalties already. Only three less than Rooney.

*** In all his career, Rooney has only scored 17 league penalties. We are to believe Shearer, Henry and Drogba didn't score penalties?

Somebody captain a team and the team lost, so it has to be his fault. One match out of 38. Spain lost their first of world cup 2010.

We were without Valencia, Welbeck and Shaw today, who all have been good in the formation. We missed RVP and Evans too. I wasn't so confident when I knew the injury list hadn't changed from the game against Valencia.

Last season, we played against Stoke. RVP was poor poorer poorest, but he scored a goal. The blame here was immediately pushed to Rooney. They told us RVP did his part and what did Rooney do. Rooney played as a number 10 in just about 20 mins and was moved to midfield when two defenders go injured.

Today, even with Rooney good play and a goal, he's being blamed. Nobody remembers someone played a number 10. Rooney is expected to score like Henry or Shearer from midfield or number 10, but Mata or Kagawa can fail from there. It's okay o.





** A week ago PSG came out openly to say they still want Rooney seriously. You guys should have sold him na.

If Valencia had played today, he would be the 2nd person being blamed. Is this what this thread is about?

Nihilist: If you want to go that way:

Shearer had a career total of 379 goals in 733 appearances...That's 0.51 goals per game

Henry has a career total as of today of 353 goals in 764 appearances....That's 0.46 goals per game

Rooney has 234 goals in 520 apps including today...that is 0.45 goals per game.

So this goal scoring record in the league is not a fluke...but is actually consistent with the career goal scoring rate of some of the legendary goal scorers....including the aforementioned players and Robin Van Persie(202 in 431, 0.47 goals per game)

* and to think Henry, Shearer and RVP have been lone strikers which Rooney has never been.

* And to think Rooney is first a number 10 before a 9. Others are out and out 9.

* I wish they can use same stat to measure Ozil, Kagawa and other number 10s.

codedguy1: Rooney flatters to deceive joh.

For someone shafting United of 300k/pwk he should atleast be doing what Suarez is doing/did for liverpool.

What did Suarez win in Liverpool?

coogar: the second goal was conceded because our defence was caught napping. somebody should have taken the yellow card for the team by blocking bony's quick freekick. that freekick got the defence in a disarray, young was isolated at the far end, but young isn't a left back......there's no way he should be blamed for that goal! if evans & shaw were fit, young wouldn't have been in that position.

Ukwu!!!

If na Val do dis mistake.....

Nihilist: Same Rooney that is only a goal away from equalling Henry's EPL total flatters to deceive?

Wetin man no go read for this thread?

A lot of people came to watch the match in my house today. Almost all of them (many not United fans) said Rooney and Januzaj were the only players for United today. This was even before the equalizer. A few mentioned Herrera as a 3rd person. Later they added Jones to be the saviour from humiliation.

It's best for me now to ignore these people's comments.